In the telecommunications industry, electronic equipment is housed in a series of equipment racks to permit higher densities of connections per unit of floor space. Installing a large number of connections in an equipment rack is efficient with respect to floor space but places a premium on the ability to manage and maintain the cables leading to and away from these equipment racks. A telecommunications installation might have outside plant or network infrastructure cables connected to switching equipment housed in a series of telecommunications equipment racks, local distribution cables connected to the same switching equipment in the racks, and patch cords and cross-connect jumpers linking the switching equipment. The switching equipment being connected can be located within the same rack, in adjacent racks, in racks within the same linear row or aisle, or in racks in different aisles. In addition, electrical power and thus power cables must be supplied to the switching equipment. All of these cables must be provided with paths or cable management structures within the equipment racks and between the equipment racks.
These network infrastructure, patch, jumper and power cables share the available cable management structures within a telecommunications installation. For dense installations, it is desirable to provide some manner of grouping like cables together to improve maintenance and operational efficiency. For instance, cross-connect cables and network infrastructure cables may share the same vertical path on an equipment rack. The cross-connect cables are accessed and moved much more frequently than the network interface cables. Therefore, some way of grouping and segregating these cables within the same vertical cable path is desirable.
In addition, segregation and separation of cross-connect cables is also desirable. Some cross-connect cables link devices on the same rack while other cross-connect cables link equipment on separate racks. The racks within a particular telecommunications installation will have a series of horizontal paths or troughs which serve both types of cross-connect cables. For improved operational and maintenance efficiency, some apparatus for organizing and segregating these cross-connect cables as intra-rack and inter-rack should be provided. Other improvements to these troughs to provide better access to and visibility of the cables in the troughs, and to allow easier entry and exit of cables to the troughs, are also desirable.
There is an ever-increasing demand for additional telecommunications connections within existing installations. It is desirable to supply these connections within the same physical racks and wiring closets. Devices which allow switching and connection modules of higher levels of connection density are desirable. In addition, in a telecommunications equipment rack, it is desirable to have some ability to store small tools and equipment as well as additional patch cords for cross-connecting circuits. This will allow minor tasks, such as switching and small repairs to be done at that rack with materials close at hand. However, the provision of such a storage area should not detract from the number of circuits that a telecommunications rack can supply.